Barbara Lewis, Brandeis Law’s first female dean, passes away

The University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law has announced the death of Dean Barbara Buchanan Lewis on Nov. 7. She was 79 years old.

Lewis was the first female law dean at the University of Louisville, serving in that position from 1982-1990. After she left the dean’s office, she returned to the faculty, where she mostly taught tax law, until her retirement in 2006. Even after retirement, she continued as an adjunct professor until 2014.

Linda Ewald, a retired professor at the Brandeis School of Law and an associate dean under Lewis, provided information about Lewis’ life and career:

Lewis earned bachelor’s and JD degrees from the University of Louisville, a master’s in education from Tennessee Technological University and a Master of Law and Taxation from the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Before her career in legal education, Lewis worked as an attorney for the U.S. Corps of Engineers, as a probation officer for the Jefferson County Juvenile Court and as a teacher in Honduras and Guatemala.

Her true passion was the law and education, and following her graduation from William and Mary, she taught at Cumberland School of Law and the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where she also served as chair of the faculty senate and as interim dean.

Born in Campbellsville, Kentucky, Lewis returned to her Kentucky roots in 1982 when she and her husband, Jim, came to Louisville, where she became dean of the Brandeis School of Law.

Lewis was a trailblazer in legal education. She was one of only a handful of women students in her law school class and at the time she was named dean at UofL there were only five other women law deans nationwide. During her tenure as dean, she built bridges within the community and the profession and served on a number of boards, including the Center for Women and Families, the Department of Public Advocacy, the Louisville and Kentucky Bar Foundations, the League of Women Voters, the ACLU and Citizens for Better Judges.

As dean, and later as a professor, she worked tirelessly to promote diversity in the law school and the profession. She served on many national boards, including the Council on Legal Education Opportunity, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession and the Law School Admissions Council Task Force on Minority Recruitment, as well as numerous local and state-wide initiatives relating to access and diversity in the legal profession.

While Lewis enjoyed the challenges of the deanship, she missed daily contact with students. In 1990 she returned to pursue her passion, classroom teaching.

Mostly, she taught tax. When asked why anyone would teach tax, she would respond with, “I just love the Internal Revenue Code.”

As a professor, she was tough, demanding and had no patience with slackers. She felt strongly about the importance of attendance, preparedness and promptness. She was a stickler for all three. Lewis expected students to be respectful, responsible, collegial and professional. Students who complained about the difficulty of the tax code or the length of an assignment generally got the same response from her: “Life is tough.” On occasion, she was known to make the same observation in faculty meetings.

Despite the heavy demands Lewis placed on students, and the fact that some students found her a bit intimidating, she cared deeply about them personally and about their professional success.

She taught them tax but, more importantly, she taught them about the values of the legal profession and what it means to be a professional. She was a mentor and role model to generations of students.

When she announced her retirement in 2006, the Student Bar Association created a special teaching award in her honor and recognized her at graduation. Throughout her career she received many awards for her leadership and community service, but the awards she received from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Louisville for excellence in teaching were the ones she valued most.

Barbara Lewis loved the law and she was devoted to her students. Several years ago, upon receiving a Kentucky Bar Association Award, she said, “I have always thought that to be a lawyer is a great calling. It is a great service, and to teach lawyers is great privilege.”

She embraced the calling, served the community and profession with distinction and taught her heart out every single day. A life well lived. She will be missed.

Brandeis School of Law Professor Laura Rothstein, who served as the law school’s second female dean (2000-2005), shared this letter she wrote to Lewis in 2007:

How lucky I am to follow in your shoes. You been a great role model and mentor at this very special law school. I thank you for breaking the glass ceiling for me.

I’ve always enjoyed your dry humor, your impatience with baseball caps in the classroom, and your stories about the various characters in our law school’s history.

You have led by example, and we are all very fortunate that you returned to your alma mater to serve it as dean. I remember well how you said you would not give me any unrequested advice — the only exception you made to that statement was that we needed to get the staff a better place to relax. So I set about finding a room that could serve as a staff lounge.

Although you don’t draw attention to all your good works, I am very aware of what you did to change the culture of the faculty, how you raised funds to create professorships to recognize outstanding faculty members. And we are all aware of how much your students respect and appreciate your dedication to teaching and your knowledge and understanding. And you continue to serve the law school and are even willing to try new courses.

You have done all this quietly, without fanfare. It has not gone unappreciated. Thank you for all you have done for the law school and for me.

Bethany Daily is the director of communications for the Brandeis School of Law. She is responsible for both external and internal communications geared toward a variety of audiences, including faculty and staff, students, alumni and prospective students. Before coming to Brandeis, Daily was the associate editor at Louisville Business First, a weekly business journal. In that role, she was responsible for special publications and managed awards and recognition programs. Daily also has worked at the national headquarters of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the communications department.